Commentary

Out to Launch

Citibank gives Valley girls and hillbillies a bad rep. Bad timing for a Zoological Society of San Diego ad campaign. Bayer Advanced bows four ads. Let's launch!

Here's the skinny on Rubbermaid: the company has launched Rubbermaid Collapsible Containers, a line of food storage containers that folds to 1 inch flat, with a TV, print and online campaign supporting the launch. I want a batch ASAP. Print ads are running in the May and June issues of Ladies Home Journal and Real Simple as well as People's "50 Most Beautiful People" issue. Online ads are running on targeted sites such as allrecipies.com, clubmom.com and ivillage.com, to name a few. The 15-second TV spot, entitled "Make-Over," is airing on HGTV, The Food Network, Lifetime, Women's Entertainment and Oxygen. The spot gives a much needed makeover, in a mere 10 seconds, to a cluttered kitchen. Click here to watch the ad. A "Dream Kitchen" sweepstakes is running online on various Meredith Web sites where readers can register for a dream kitchen worth $25,000. StarLink handled media strategy and investment, while Clear Blue created the campaign.

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If you believe that Dr. Robert Rey of E!'s reality show "Dr. 90210" would be caught dead eating Carl's Jr. food, then I have a bridge to sell you. The ad promotes the revamped Bacon Swiss Crispy Chicken Sandwich, which uses bigger chicken breasts, and explains the choice of Dr. Rey, a plastic surgeon and latest spokesman.The ad shows Dr. Rey doing what he does best on his TV show: giving consultations and convincing women (or chicken in this case) to go big with their breast implants. The ad launched on May 1 and is not the least bit funny. It could have been a fun play on words/job occupation, but it didn't work for me. Rey is a hardcore workout enthusiast and I can't imagine a man who does push-ups before each surgery would devour a crispy chicken sandwich for lunch. Mendelsohn Zien Advertising handled all aspects of the campaign. Click here to watch the ad.

El Diario La Prensa, a Spanish-language newspaper, joined forces with SBS Radio in New York City to support their Hispanic readers and listeners during the controversy surrounding proposed immigration laws. The newspaper ran a blank, front-page ad on May 1 to symbolize the void that would be left in America without immigrants. Prior to the ad running, SBS New York ran promotional spots calling for a rational solution to the immigration issue.

That being said, file this ad under poor timing and unlikely coincidence. The Zoological Society of San Diego, home of the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, launched a print and TV campaign promoting the Monkey Trails section of the zoo, where visitors can walk among monkeys. The tagline for both the print and TV campaign is "New Monkey Trails: Where Every Monkey Would Love to Live." Three print executions show a monkey in the cockpit of an airplane, holding a passport and affixing stamps to itself, in an effort to mail itself from the jungle to the San Diego Zoo. The TV ad shows a monkey "writing" a letter in hopes of being plucked from the jungle and transferred to the San Diego Zoo. One print ad in the campaign is stirring up some controversy, given the debate surrounding the proposed immigration laws. The ad is an application for American residency scribbled with red ink, as if a monkey had filled it out. Not surprisingly, the ad is generating a bit of controversy in numerous markets where it's running. Gee, you think? Even a monkey could figure that one out. The ads are running through the summer and were created by M&C Saatchi, Los Angeles. Round 2 Integrated Media handled the media planning and buying. Click here to watch the TV spot.

Citibank has launched two 30-second spots promoting Citi Identity Theft Solutions and the ease of speaking to a real person about one's account. These ads haven't gone stale yet. Using an unlikely voiceover playing the part of the thief, and coupling that with the poor soul we see in the ads, ensures laughter. "Thelma & Norma" and "Darrel" launched this week on network and cable TV. "Thelma & Norma" features two elderly women sitting on a couch, speaking with the voices of hillbilly men. "Hoooooo-eeeee!  Spending limit? Who cares?" says Thelma. Both voices continue by describing the motorcycles they bought on someone else's dime. "Darrel" cracks me up. We see a bald man sitting on his weight bench, bewitched with the voice of an 18-year-old girl. This man's facial expressions are priceless. He starts out by saying, "I stole his password online and 'Hello, makeover!' I got hair extensions, plumped up the lips and snapped the hottest head shots. Hollywood, here I come! Tell me what you think." Then comes the off-key rendition of "Unbreak My Heart." Click here to watch Darrel. Prepare to laugh. Fallon created the campaign and handled the media planning and mediaedge:CIA did the buying.

Hyundai is the official automotive sponsor of the upcoming 2006 FIFA World Cup Games and launched three Spanish-language TV spots, airing nationally on Spanish-language stations, promoting both the World Cup sponsorship, the love of soccer and Hyundai's line of vehicles. "Opponent" shows teens warming up for a soccer game with pictures of Hyundai cars interspersed throughout.  "Similar" highlights the safety and functionality features of Hyundai cars and the grace and fluidity of soccer players. "Anthem" shows a group of adults playing soccer, with nary a mention of Hyundai cars until the end of the spot. Dieste Harmel & Partners, Dallas, created the campaign, although Del Rivero Messianu DDB now serves as agency of record for Hyundai's U.S. Hispanic account. Carat handled the media buying.

Bayer Advanced, a line of home and garden care products, has launched four TV spots, an extension of a print and radio campaign it launched last spring. "Grub," "Rose," "Tree," and "Complete" launched at the end of April on ABC, ESPN, and HGTV using the tag line "Better science. Better results." The ads promote the brand's line of products used to rid gardens, trees and grass of bugs and grubs. The ads combine pictures of a garden, tree, lawn and a rose with scientific babble and a closer inspection of what lies beneath the surface of a yard. It ain't pretty. BBDO Atlanta created the ads and OMD Atlanta handled the media planning and buying. Click here to watch "Grub."

Breckenridge Brewery of Colorado has launched a print brand identity campaign promoting its Vanilla Porter beer. The campaign is running in 18 states, launched late last month, and uses an old-fashioned vibe to promote the beer. Copy on one print ad states: "A Vanilla Kiss In A Deep Dark Sea." Print ads are running in The Onion, Colorado Homes and Lifestyles, The Independent, Mountain Gazette Zymurgy, Rocky Mountain Brewing News, and Great Lakes Brewing News. Media buying was handled in-house and Cultivator Advertising & Design created the campaign.

B.L. Ochman has launched Ethics Crisis on behalf of SRF Global Translations, a company that provides multilanguage translations and printing of corporate compliance materials for multinational companies. The blog focuses on global business ethics and allows visitors to anonymously confess the most unethical things they have ever done in business; it also aggregates news about global business ethics and ethics compliance issues. SRF Global Translations customers have added incentives to check out the blog: they can request a quote, upload files for translation, and make online payments for completed multilanguage translations.

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